It’s Surreal That “Slava Ukraini” Was Just Shouted In The Sejm

 

Ukrainian fascists screamed this slogan as they genocided over 100,000 Poles during World War II, so no self-respecting Pole should ever use it, let alone a parliamentarian in the Sejm.

Polish MP Roman Fritz from the conservative-nationalist Confederation party recently called out a colleague in the Sejm who ended her speech by shouting “Slava Ukraini”. In his words, “Here we had an example of shameful behavior - Bandera and Nazi. Such things have not yet happened in the Polish Sejm. It's as if someone here would shout ‘Sieg Heil!’ That's a disgrace.” The Ukrainian Ambassador predictably defended that slogan but then also compared it to Poland’s “Niech żyje Polska” (“long live Poland”).

While they might appear similar, they were used in totally different contexts, with “Niech żyje Polska” being a rallying cry for Polish independence after the Partitions and for true sovereignty during the 1980s while “Slava Ukraini” was screamed by Ukrainian fascists as they genocided Poles during World War II. It’s for that reason why shouting “Slava Ukraini” in the Sejm is so surreal while Ambassador Vasily Bodnar’s comparison of that slogan to Poland’s famous “Niech żyje Polska” is so dishonest.

President-Elect Karol Nawrocki, who used to lead Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance that’s done a lot to raise global awareness of the Volhynia Genocide that was referred to above, will be inaugurated on Wednesday morning. This latest scandal, which follows early June’s one where the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry downplayed the aforesaid series of war crimes by their co-ethnics, might therefore harden his already tough stance towards this issue in particular and Ukraine in general.  (more...)

It’s Surreal That “Slava Ukraini” Was Just Shouted In The Sejm